The devs at Visionary Realms feel pretty strongly about where Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen fits in to the whole MMORPG universe, as evidenced by the inaugural episode of the game’s Parting the Veil podcast, which took on the idea that Pantheon is meant to be a niche game – a topic the devs felt strongly enough about that the first episode was broken up into two parts.
The podcast invited creative director Chris Perkins on to talk about the topic, and he definitely had some thoughts on the idea:
“I can say, first of all, we are not interested in designing a niche game just for the sake of being niche. We’re not looking for specific design principles or approaches to game design that are going to alienate potential fans of the game. […] I would say it’s not being designed intentionally to be niche, nor do I foresee it by happenstance becoming niche based on what it is that the game is going to be.”
Perkins then talks about systems that Pantheon is using that could be seen as niche-leaning but aren’t, using the game’s death penalty as an example, which he promises will try to balance between building a sense of tension without being overly harsh. He also talks about making sure a game’s design isn’t too intrinsically tied to an older game’s experience or systems, making sure Pantheon’s systems don’t make the game feel “plasticky,” and how he intends to make playing MMOs feel different again. It’s part podcast, part TED Talk, and all embedded after the cut.
